


It's Hard To Be A Goof

by notthehighkingedmund



Category: A Goofy Movie (1995)
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 06:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7498473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notthehighkingedmund/pseuds/notthehighkingedmund
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Goofy likes to keep his insecurities and pain to himself, so no one else feels blue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mrs Geef

He was in love. She was the most perfect woman for him. They understood each other - she found him funny and quirky, thought his clumsiness was cute and not a hindrance. And he thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Not the kind that anyone would have expected to choose him! Smart, funny, beautiful - breathtaking.  
She was perfect, and perfect for him.  
In short, Goofy was in love.

They married fast, but it didn't feel fast, and not long afterwards they had a son.  
Max.  
He was adorable and sweet - a real ambitious little kid who loved to laugh.  
They were the Goofs, and they were happy.  
Goofy was happy.

 

Then there came that day when she grew so tired and pained that she could not stand. Rushed to the hospital for tests, an anxious Goofy paced the waiting room, hoping she was okay - hoping she'd be released in time for them to pick Max up from school.

A doctor spent a good half hour explaining, but it didn't make sense. She had been so healthy, and now she was dying. His love, his darling - he was losing her and there was no way to stop it.  
While he smiled and greeted his wife happily - he was crying rivers inside.

What would they tell their son?

 

Goofy never let them see him cry - see him down. He had to be strong for the three of them, and so he was. He took charge of taking Max to school and his friends' houses, of working, of caring for his wife, of the house - of everything.  
It exhausted him, but he never let it show. He couldn't let Max see him break - he was just a boy, losing his mother was hard enough, seeing his father lose it would not be good for the child.  
He couldn't let her see it either, for she'd feel guilty for causing this pain. It wasn't her fault - Goofy never once blamed her. Books said that it was common to blame the patient, but Goofy blamed the disease, and he fought it with everything he had.

Max finally saw his father cry the day his mother passed away.

 

Goofy had become a shell of the man he once was - silently moving through his day, unsmiling, no laughing - just a defeated look upon his face. That only ever changed when he was with his son. He still couldn't allow himself to stop being a good father because of his grief - Max deserve a dad he could play with, laugh with, spend time with. It was only when he wasn't at home that Goofy allowed himself to collapse in on himself.

The funeral was crushing. Goofy managed a eulogy, but only a short one.  
"There's so much I could say about her, but I can't seem to find the right words to put them in - so I'll say this. I have loved her from the day we met, and I knew that we were meant to be.  
She was the perfect wife, the perfect mother - the perfect woman. I only wish I had more time with her."  
He had gone numb by the fifth family member's sorrowful apology and hug. For once, the whole world saw Goofy in a new light. He was a different man from the one they all knew and loved...

 

But Goofy was determined that he'd return to who he was - be the person his wife had loved. Because he knew that if she had loved him, then he was doing it right.  
And so he slowly bounced back, until no one seemed to recall that he'd suffered a loss. It was only at night, while Max slept, that Goofy would sit and look at his wedding photos, letting himself recoil into his shell once again.


	2. Max

He'd gotten into the swing of single parenthood - it was second nature now, being mother and father. They'd made it work.  
Except, it wasn't working any more.

Max wasn't the same kid. Not the boy who begged his dad to play - to tell a joke - to dance and be silly with. No longer was he the little boy that crawled into his dad's bed when there was a storm, or he'd had a bad nightmare. Nor was he the boy that sat on his dad's lap to read stories until he fell asleep.

No. He was a teenager, and one that wanted to be anything but his father. Something that Goofy couldn't understand. There had never been anything wrong with being the way he was until recently.  
But now Max pushed him away, begged him to park out of sight, told him to go away.  
Max, it seemed, was happier when Goofy wasn't around.

Goofy didn't know what he was doing wrong - all of his instincts told him he was doing it right, and parenting books seemed agree... But his neighbour and friend, Pete, didn't. And Pete always knew what he was talking about - Goofy knew this.  
Pete was always right.  
So when it was said that Goofy was doing a poor job parenting his son, well it had to be true.  
And so he deflated once more. Wondering what he could have done differently - what he could do to fix it.  
Whether things would have turned out okay if Max still had his mother...

Goofy knew he wasn't good at much - or good for much - but he loved his son with all his heart, and he'd be damned if his lack of talent, or skill, would get in the way of raising his child.  
He'd just have to try harder to be better.

For Max.


End file.
